‘…the vision, and then you tell us about it, so shall we not shortly see it as you saw it?’ He said: ‘That has left me since the decree was assigned.’ Abd al-Razzaq said: ‘I related it to Ma‘mar, who remarked, “Goodness is farthest removed from those whose decree is not commended.”’ (Reported by Abu Nu‘aym in al-Hilya, 4/56.) Who, after you, O Shahr, will secure the reciters? (This is the closing hemistich of a couplet composed about Shahr ibn Hawshab. The addition given here comes from the same source. Its original form, as narrated by Yahya ibn Abi Bakir al-Kurmani from his father, ran: “Shahr has sold his faith for a pouch of dirhams… Who, after you, O Shahr, will guard the reciters? You took it for a trifle and sold it away… —from Ibn Jarir, this indeed is betrayal.” Al-Dhahabi commented that its isnad is interrupted; perhaps Shahr later regretted the verse or meant that he had a rightful share in the public treasury. May God pardon him. (Siyar A‘lam al-Nubala’, 4/375; see also the forthcoming biography of Hawshab, p. 304.) How then are those who have immersed themselves in the filth of worldly scholars of your time—especially after the fitna of Timur Lang—when hearts have been filled with love of this world and knowledge finds no place in it? Sit with whomever you please among them to observe the principles and objectives of their gatherings, and let not the sayings of desert dwellers mislead you. Matters are judged by their outcomes, conclusions, results, and aims. “And whoever fears Allah—He will make for him a way out, and will provide for him from sources he never could anticipate.” (Quran 65:2–3) Wahb said: “Tribulation for the believer is like the halter for the beast.” (Abu Nu‘aym, al-Hilya 4/56.) The shakkal is the rope by which the legs of an animal are bound (Lisan al-Arab, “shakkal”). Abu Bilal al-Ash‘ari, reporting from Abu Hisham—correcting a misprint of “Abu Shihab” in some copies and whose biography appears in al-Jarh wa al-Ta‘dil 2/187 (he is Isma‘il ibn ‘Abd al-Karim ibn Ma‘qil ibn Munabbih, Abu Hisham al-San‘ani)—from ‘Abd al-Samad, from Wahb: “Whoever is afflicted by tribulation has been set upon the path of the prophets.” (Abu Nu‘aym, al-Hilya 4/56.) ‘Abd Allah ibn Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: “Abd al-Razzaq told us: Mundhir informed us that he heard Wahb say: ‘I read in the book of a companion that if you are placed on the path—or as he put it, the way—of the people of tribulation, then rejoice, for you have been set upon the path of the prophets and the righteous.’” (Same source.) Imam Ahmad said: “Ahmed ibn Ja‘far narrated to us, from Ibrahim ibn Khalid, from Umayya ibn Shibl, from Uthman ibn Yazduyha: I was with Wahb and Sa‘id ibn Jubayr on the Day of ‘Arafah under Ibn ‘Amir’s date palms. Wahb said to Sa‘id, ‘O Abu ‘Abd Allah, how long has it been since you feared al-Hajjaj?’ He replied, ‘I left my pregnant wife, and the one in her womb came forth, his features and hair emerging.’ Wahb said, ‘Those before you, when struck by calamity, counted it as prosperity, and when granted prosperity, counted it as calamity.’” (Ibn Abi ‘Asim, al-Zuhd p. 373; Abu Nu‘aym, al-Hilya 4/56–57, 290.) Abd Allah ibn Ahmad, on the authority of Wahb, reported: “I read in some books: None of My servants is bewitched or has magic performed on him, or practices soothsaying or is soothsayed to, or takes omens or is given omens—if anyone believes this of himself, let him ascribe it to another; for verily, that is only I, and all My creation belong to Me.” (Abu Nu‘aym, al-Hilya 4/57; also al-Bayhaqi, Shu‘ab al-Iman 2/64 no. 1176 via ‘Abd al-Razzaq, that Ka‘b said God said: “None of My servants…”)